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| Italian Job Photo: Paramount, All rights reserved |
The Italian Job, 6.55pm, Film4, Tuesday, August 1
If Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One whet your appetite for Italian car chases, then you can fill your boots with this heist classic. And, like the Tom Cruise franchise, this 1969 charmer isn’t scared to have a bit of a laugh as well as delivering thrills. Michael “I only told you to blow the bloody doors off” Caine is on top form as Charlie Croker, who is planning a gold robbery in Turin. There’s a masterful Mini Cooper car chase through the narrow Italian streets - including a flight of stairs, which Mission Impossible recently emulated - and don't forget the wonderful Noel Coward, as a jailed Mr Big, in what would be his final role. Forget the bullion, Caine and co are likely to steal your heart.
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, 7.25pm, ITV2, Wednesday, August 2
ITV2 is showing a run of Harry Potter films every evening this week this week but the third instalment, directed by Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuaron, is the first one I’d recommend turning in for after the rather twee first two entries in the franchise. The series hits its stride here, with better acting from the cast, who have grown more into their roles, while the story arc begins to also gather strength and the characters are increasingly fleshed out. The supporting cast is strong, with Emma Thompson as the Divination teacher and David Thewlis on particularly good form as Dark Arts teacher Remus Lupin. Harry is in trouble for breaking wizarding rules and also finds himself targeted by escaped murderer Sirius Black. An altogether darker slice of the magical schoolboy’s life, complete with spooky soul-sucking Dementors, and all the better for it.
Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood, 9pm, Film4, Wednesday, August 2
Jennie Kermode writes: Quentin Tarantino is in his element as he delivers an alternative history of Hollywood which nevertheless cuts close to the bone in places, following faded TV star Rick (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his unlikely stunt double Cliff (Brad Pitt) as they attempt to navigate a rapidly changing industry whose Golden Age is in decline. Margot Robbie shines as Sharon Tate, capturing the unfortunate actress’ vivacity and curious naivety in a way which it’s hard to imagine any other actor doing, and there are also great supporting turns from Daniel Day Lewis and Al Pacino. That it’s overlong and overindulgent should go without saying, but even so, there’s a good deal for fans to enjoy. Read what Gay Talese had to say about it, plus what the stars and director reckoned in Cannes.
Schindler's List, 10.40pm, BBC1, Thursday, August 3
Steven Spielberg finally achieved Best Director Oscar-winning status with this harrowing, black and white recounting of the story of factory Oskar Schindler, who risked his own life to save others and is credited with rescuing more than 1,200 Jewish during the Holocaust. Liam Neeson plays Schindler with subtlety and reserve, further emphasised by the deliberately monstrous performance that Ralph Fiennes puts in as Nazi commandant Amon Goeth. Beyond bringing home its message with a punch, Spielberg also used the profits from the film to found the USC Shoah Foundation, which honours and memorialises the survivors of the Shoah by preserving their testimonies in order to make them “accessible for research, education, and outreach for the betterment of humankind in perpetuity”.
The Handmaiden, 12.40am, Film4, Friday, August 4
Jennie Kermode writes: Park Chan-wook is known for his stylish and violent revenge thrillers, yet here he takes on something a little different, plunging into the Gothic and exploring its nuances with a subtlety which reveals his mastery of the filmmaking craft. There are oblique references to the work of the Marquis de Sade in this tightly structured erotic mystery, and like that author, Park is keenly aware that the telling of an explicit tale can be an erotic act in itself. There are multiple layers of such telling here within a fabulous Gothic mansion which is every bit as mysterious, in which we meet a trader in rare books, an imperilled heiress, a faux nobleman who plans to ruin her and a pickpocket turned lady in waiting who may of might not be a party to the others' schemes but can't conceal her passion for the heiress herself. Nothing is what it seems in one of those rare puzzle-box films capable of confounding the smartest of viewers - yet for all its cleverness and dazzling beauty, what is most striking is the way it tightens its grip, making the viewer complicit in the game.
Ghostbusters, 4.55pm, BBC1, Sunday, August 6
This wasn't Bill Murray's first major film – he'd already been in the likes of Caddyshack and Tootsie – but it is arguably the one that propelled him to household name status as the drily humorous Peter Venkman alongside Dan Akroyd's Ray Stantz and Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler. As this trio of unlikely spook catchers find themselves on an unlikely mission to save New York, the gags just keep coming and director Ivan Reitman never takes his foot off the gas. With a cast that also includes Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis on fine form and big budget special effects, its comedy has withstood the passing of the years and it remains head and shoulders above 2021’s nostalgia-inflected Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
The Worst Person In The World, 12.45am, Monday, August 7
Anne-Katrin Titze writes: You will be able to think of a number of people much worse than anybody we encounter in Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, co-written with longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt. The title expresses perfectly, though, a feeling of surfeit, in a not-yet-adult-at-any-age-and-aware-of-it kind of fashion. Julie, played by Renate Reinsve (Best Actress winner at Cannes) takes us on trips of reinvention attempts and new beginnings. A female narrator’s voice tells us in 12 chapters, a prologue and an epilogue, the tale in a timeless, soothing tone, as if all will be well eventually. Overwhelmed by something in a relationship or beyond, the self or the other may feel like the worst to the best of us. When Julie, in her late twenties, meets Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), successful comic book author, the mutual attraction is palpable. The scenes with Julie’s father (Vidar Sandem), who remarried and has a teenage daughter, are revealing and poignant. Time speeds up, slows down, seemingly stands still and before you know it, the end announces itself with a grin.
To watch our short film recommendation this week, you’ll have to pop over to Vimeo and log in. Anastasia Kratidi has gone on since On The Verge to be first assistant director on Apples and has a couple films as assistant director in the pipeline, so we reckon it’s only a matter of time before she makes her first feature.
